I started practicing within the soto zen tradition before I travelled to Wat Pah Nanachat to get ordained as an Anagarika in 2002. After a few months of training there I returned to germany.

Sadhu!

Last edited by Sokehi on Wed Jul 02, 2014 9:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Get the wanting out of waiting

What does womanhood matter at all, when the mind is concentrated well, when knowledge flows on steadily as one sees correctly into Dhamma. One to whom it might occur, ‘I am a woman’ or ‘I am a man’ or ‘I’m anything at all’ is fit for Mara to address. – SN 5.2

If they take what's yours, tell yourself that you're making it a gift.Otherwise there will be no end to the animosity. - Ajahn Fuang Jotiko

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

What does womanhood matter at all, when the mind is concentrated well, when knowledge flows on steadily as one sees correctly into Dhamma. One to whom it might occur, ‘I am a woman’ or ‘I am a man’ or ‘I’m anything at all’ is fit for Mara to address. – SN 5.2

If they take what's yours, tell yourself that you're making it a gift.Otherwise there will be no end to the animosity. - Ajahn Fuang Jotiko

I started practicing within the soto zen tradition, lived a couple of months at Zen Zentrum Eisenbuch before I travelled to Wat Pah Nanachat to get ordained as an Anagarika in 2002. After a few months of training there I returned to germany.

Sadhu!

hi Michael, Welcome Aboard.how did you find your time as a Anagarika? I was one at Amaravati for just over a year.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion … ...He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

@alobha: I'm unsure what you mean. Well I used to be an Anagarika back in 2002 and since then I am a layperson (but anagarikas are still laity anyways I guess?), but not a huge shake of a layperson I "disrobed" at Nanachat and stayed afterwards for a week or so, leaving the kuti, back to sleep above the kitchen as laymen usually do there.

@Cittasanto: well how did I find it? very cold, very hungry, very sore feet after pindabat, very happy, very afraid, very uplifted, very challenged... I guess you know what it is like within the frying pan of a monastery the coin there has multiple sides. But still I recollect my time there as one of the most important and inspiring times of all my life ... just being a pahkow for just 3 months or so though. and I thought something glum like sokehi is more honest than "superbodhisattva" or something like that

Get the wanting out of waiting

What does womanhood matter at all, when the mind is concentrated well, when knowledge flows on steadily as one sees correctly into Dhamma. One to whom it might occur, ‘I am a woman’ or ‘I am a man’ or ‘I’m anything at all’ is fit for Mara to address. – SN 5.2

If they take what's yours, tell yourself that you're making it a gift.Otherwise there will be no end to the animosity. - Ajahn Fuang Jotiko

Sokehi wrote:@Cittasanto: well how did I find it? very cold, very hungry, very sore feet after pindabat, very happy, very afraid, very uplifted, very challenged... I guess you know what it is like within the frying pan of a monastery the coin there has multiple sides. But still I recollect my time there as one of the most important and inspiring times of all my life ... just being a pahkow for just 3 months or so though. and I thought something glum like sokehi is more honest than "superbodhisattva" or something like that

it is not quite the same in the west, no pindabat, although it has its own unique difficulties.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion … ...He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

In 2003 or so I stayed a couple of weeks at Aruna Rathanagiri (beautiful place with a wonderful abbot ). So I could get a taste of forest sangha life in the west.

How did you find it living in a dual community like Amaravati? At Zen Zentrum Eisenbuch I found it difficult, not necesarrilly sexually but social-emotionally for sure.

Just to make it clear: I'm definetely pro bhikkuni... but after my experiences I think it is better to live in different viharas. But I'd welcome your impressions for my reflection.

Get the wanting out of waiting

What does womanhood matter at all, when the mind is concentrated well, when knowledge flows on steadily as one sees correctly into Dhamma. One to whom it might occur, ‘I am a woman’ or ‘I am a man’ or ‘I’m anything at all’ is fit for Mara to address. – SN 5.2

If they take what's yours, tell yourself that you're making it a gift.Otherwise there will be no end to the animosity. - Ajahn Fuang Jotiko

Sokehi wrote:In 2003 or so I stayed a couple of weeks at Aruna Rathanagiri (beautiful place with a wonderful abbot ). So I could get a taste of forest sangha life in the west.

How did you find it living in a dual community like Amaravati? At Zen Zentrum Eisenbuch I found it difficult, not necesarrilly sexually but social-emotionally for sure.

Just to make it clear: I'm definetely pro bhikkuni... but after my experiences I think it is better to live in different viharas. But I'd welcome your impressions for my reflection.

Harnham is a very nice place and I respect Ajahn Munindo very much.Zen (if the japanese form) don't have the same protocals when it comes to the sexes so it isn't good to compare the two, although the social aspect was a big challange for me also.I believe the two sides should be as independent as possible, but not completely separate but far enough away so tensions can easily be averted/avoided.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion … ...He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

As mentioned before somewhere else on the Dhammawheel I'm happy to be able finally to leave this household here in august and take up Anagarika training at one of the english monasteries sometimes later

I won't be able after this to contribute any more to this board (or any other social media).

I'll hop in every now and then until august and would like to express my sincere thank you to the admins and the forummembers that contribute in a supportive and wholesome way to the needs and questions of others on this board. You all have been great online-kalyanamittas for me

Get the wanting out of waiting

What does womanhood matter at all, when the mind is concentrated well, when knowledge flows on steadily as one sees correctly into Dhamma. One to whom it might occur, ‘I am a woman’ or ‘I am a man’ or ‘I’m anything at all’ is fit for Mara to address. – SN 5.2

If they take what's yours, tell yourself that you're making it a gift.Otherwise there will be no end to the animosity. - Ajahn Fuang Jotiko

He turns his mind away from those phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property of deathlessness: 'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' (Jhana Sutta - Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation)

Sokehi wrote:As mentioned before somewhere else on the Dhammawheel I'm happy to be able finally to leave this household here in august and take up Anagarika training at one of the english monasteries sometimes later

I won't be able after this to contribute any more to this board (or any other social media).

I'll hop in every now and then until august and would like to express my sincere thank you to the admins and the forummembers that contribute in a supportive and wholesome way to the needs and questions of others on this board. You all have been great online-kalyanamittas for me

It's going to be one of the monasteries of the Ajahn Chah Tradition. My apologies but I'd like to keep shared informations of my whereabouts very simple and limited to close friends. Some sort of Adhitthana I made... years ago I realised the fewer know about my aspirations and travels the better. No offense. Basically I wanted to know you who are interested that I'll leave this board soon

Get the wanting out of waiting

What does womanhood matter at all, when the mind is concentrated well, when knowledge flows on steadily as one sees correctly into Dhamma. One to whom it might occur, ‘I am a woman’ or ‘I am a man’ or ‘I’m anything at all’ is fit for Mara to address. – SN 5.2

If they take what's yours, tell yourself that you're making it a gift.Otherwise there will be no end to the animosity. - Ajahn Fuang Jotiko

What does womanhood matter at all, when the mind is concentrated well, when knowledge flows on steadily as one sees correctly into Dhamma. One to whom it might occur, ‘I am a woman’ or ‘I am a man’ or ‘I’m anything at all’ is fit for Mara to address. – SN 5.2

If they take what's yours, tell yourself that you're making it a gift.Otherwise there will be no end to the animosity. - Ajahn Fuang Jotiko

Sokehi wrote:As mentioned before somewhere else on the Dhammawheel I'm happy to be able finally to leave this household here in august and take up Anagarika training at one of the english monasteries sometimes later

Congratulations! Sadhu!

I won't be able after this to contribute any more to this board (or any other social media).

Why not? Is that just for the anagarika period or even beyond? I know many monks who participate here and other forums, other avenues on the internet, for wholesome purposes of Dhamma discussion, Dhamma instruction, etc.